Beyond The Valley Of Ultrahits

Over the past several decades, Glasgow’s Richard Youngs has covered much musical ground from avant-minimalism to psychedelic techno to brooding piano pieces. This is the closest he has come to writing accessible “pop” songs. Youngs pulls out the synths and sequencer and sets out to write a set of catchy tunes. Which he does. But it’s clearly done as only Richard Youngs would do. For those looking for a comparison, he sounds a bit like Robert Wyatt. The keyboards create a vague ‘80s flashback, but Youngs plays them so sparsely and carefully that the effect is closer to art-rock than synth-pop. The real attraction here is Youngs’ vocal arrangements. Voices chase one another with rhapsodic results. “Love In the Great Outdoors” is rich in harmonies. “Collapsing Stars” and “Oh Reality” allow Youngs to emulate the sincere pop whimsy of Robert Pollard. “Still Life In Room” breaks out the falsetto against percussion. Fact is, these are wonderful pop songs. It’s said he recorded this album on a dare. Now that he’s proved himself a capable pop writer, maybe he should consider doing it again.